Liz Baylis

We sailed five matches on Friday and won three of the five with wins over Braestrup, Hayes, and Ramos. We lost the start and the race to Gibson. And had a fun battle with Gurioli that had multiple lead changes, multiple luffing matches, and a wild finish that we won, but somehow we received a penalty as the leeward boat requesting room at the pin as we were reaching in. (Still don’t quite understand the call.) So, the round robin didn’t end exactly as we wanted it to – we ended with 5 wins in a tie for seventh. After the tie-breaking rules were applies, we ended up 9^th. Ouch.

Results after the Round Robin (Wins - Losses):

1. Zuiderbaan (10-1)

2. Braestrup (8-3)

3. Meldgaard (8-3)

4. Leroy (7-4)

5. Spithill (7-4)

6. Axhede (6-5)

7. Gibson (5-6)

8. Hahlbrock (5-6)

9. SFWMRT (5-6)

10. Gurioli (4-7)

11. Hayes (1-10)

12. Campos (0-11)

Today they will sail the semis and finals and we won’t be sailing.

That’s it from Spain.

The next report will be from Annapolis where we will be competing in the BoatUS Santa Maria Cup.

Cheers,
Liz, Lee, Karina, Melinda, and Suzy
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

Today – we raced.

We (Liz, Karina, and Lee) started the morning in the pre-rain dawn with a trip up the Penyon de Ifach. (We didn’t make it yesterday afternoon due to the need to go baby gift shopping for Suzy and Karina – it’s a new experience for the team.) We made it 75% of the way to the top before the rain started, but of course., could not turn back before the top.

The racing finally got underway in the rain and we managed a total of 8 flights. Due to having 12 teams and 8 boats, each team sailed a different number of matches. But, the SFWMRT sailed 6 matches against the top 6 seeds in the event (Leroy (World’s #1), Meldgaard Petersen (World’s #2), Zuiderbaan (#3), Hahlbrock(#4), Spithill (#6), Axhede (#9)) and we came out with a score of 2 wins (over Leroy and Spithill) and four losses. The good news is that we lead at various stages in 5 of the six matches, but the obvious bad news is that we only had the lead at the end of two of them. We had the tough draw today, but there were plenty of positives to take from it. Look for some more positive results tomorrow! The top 8 make the quarterfinals after this round robin and we are there right now, so send us some good cheers for tomorrow!

It was a long day on the water (we got back to the dock just before 8, so now it’s time for showers and bed.

Hasta manana!

Cheers,

Liz, Melinda, Karina, Suzy and Lee
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

The day dawned with very little breeze. After about a two hour dock postponement, the boats left the dock (the SFWMRT had a first race “Bye”), and the four teams not racing followed out in motor boats. The little breeze there was faded during the first flight, so all racing was abandoned and we all returned to shore. After three hours of waiting on shore with no breeze, the Race Committee put us out of our misery and let us go for the remainder of the day.

A front is scheduled to come in tomorrow, so hopefully it will bring some breeze.

Now, it’s time to go to climb to the top of Penyon de Ifach (the big rock in the background of all the photos).

We will try to post some photos on www.lizbaylis.com when we return to the YC for dinner later.

We were told that some of the links yesterday were too long for some email systems to sort out properly, so here are the links we sent out yesterday in a different format:

The weather:
http://tinyurl.com/3c4xst

Real Club Nautico Calpe (the yacht club):
http://www.rcnc.es

IX International Women’s Match Race Criterium (the event):
http://tinyurl.com/34nlpx

Calpe has a couple of web cams that are fun to check out:

Here’s the directory, so you can test your geography (hint: Calpe is lower middle right):
http://webcam.comunitatvalenciana.com/

This is the view directly from the deck of the yacht club:
http://tinyurl.com/2vonaz

This is from a restaurant along the beach looking out towards the race course:
http://tinyurl.com/2wpele

Cheers,
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team
Liz, Karina, Suzy, Melinda, and Lee

Today the San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team got back to business in Calpe, Spain for the IX International Women’s Match Race Criterium. The team for this event is Liz Baylis, driver; Lee Icyda, tactician/main trimmer; Karina Shelton, upwind trimmer; Melinda Erkelens downwind trimmer; and Suzy Leech, bow. So, hoping to continue on our success from St. Pete, we have the same crew plus the addition of another fantastic trimmer, Melinda.

We started the morning with a hike up the Penyon de Ifach followed by the team weigh-in which we passed with flying colors. Yes, for you inquiring minds, there was a connection between the need to sweat in the morning and the weigh-in. But all was okay! After a nice breakfast and a little break we went out for the two hour practice session with beautiful 6-10 knot breeze and abundant sunshine. The session was good and we feel like our boat handling and speed are very good.

Tomorrow morning the racing starts at 1100 with a round robin with all 12 teams. We’re looking forward to some fun racing.

Now, it’s time to go to sleep!

Here are a few web sites of interest for this event:

The weather:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/SPXX0008?dp=windsdp

Real Club Nautico Calpe (the yacht club):

http://www.rcnc.es

IX International Women’s Match Race Criterium (the event):

http://www.rcnc.es/pages/regatas/criterium2007/indexcriterium2007.htm

Calpe has a couple of web cams that are fun to check out:

Here’s the directory, so you can test your geography (hint: Calpe is lower middle right):

http://webcam.comunitatvalenciana.com/

This is the view directly from the deck of the yacht club:

http://webcam.comunitatvalenciana.com/webcamcostablanca-calpe.htm?id_camara=14

This is from a restaurant along the beach looking out towards the race course:

http://webcam.comunitatvalenciana.com/webcamcostablanca-calpe1.htm?id_camara=67

Cheers,

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

Liz, Karina, Suzy, Melinda, and Lee

Todd’s cousin,Kjerstin Erickson, is the Founder and Executive Director of FORGE (Facilitating Opportunities for Refugee Growth and Empowerment). FORGE is an organization that educates, empowers, and enriches the lives of refugees in order to catalyze sustainable social change.

The story of how she started FORGE 3 years ago as a 20-year old student at Stanford University and the work they have done is truly remarkable.
She was featured on CNN’s “People You Should Know” on Friday, April 20.

(photo by Chris Petracco)

The win by the San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team in St. Petersburg has brought some great exposure on the web in the last couple of weeks. There were articles on the various sites: WIMRA, ISAF, US Sailing, Rolex Women’s Match, and many others. We wanted to share a great article that you might have missed and think you will enjoy. It was written by John Gregg on the West Marine web site:

http://www.westmarine.com/

And, of course, you can always find our reports on Liz’s website: http://www.lizbaylis.com

Thanks again for all of your support and encouragement!

We look forward to bringing you reports from Calpe, Spain, next week.

Cheers,
Liz, Lee, Karina, Melinda, and Suzy
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

If you have seen Liz recently and were wondering what happened to her long ponytail - Here’s the answer: After growing her hair for the last three years it finally got long enough to donate 10 inches last month to Locks of Love

Locks of Love accepts hair donations and makes hairpieces for disadvantaged youth suffering from long-term medical hair loss. It’s a great cause and, if you have the hair to do it, donating your hair is a pretty cool thing to do.

I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours.

- Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007)

Oakland (Calif.) April 9, 2007 — Strictly Sail Pacific, the largest sailboat show on the West Coast that opens in Oakland on April 18, brings environmentally friendly activities to Jack London Square on Earth Day weekend. The five-day event—which runs until Sunday, April 22—features a large fleet of sailboats fueled by wind power, boats and companies that tread lightly on the ocean environment, and opportunities to try sailing.”As a group, sailors are respectful of the ocean environment, and the weather,” said Kevin Murphy of show organizer Sail America. “They have to work with winds and tides, and they have to operate according to the weather … The ocean is much more than a playground: it`s integral to everything you do as a sailor.”

Sailing is a generally “green” activity, but one boat coming to Strictly Sail takes that concept to a new level.

The Derek M. Baylis, a 65-footer designed by pioneering California naval architect Tom Wylie and built in Watsonville (Calif.), was designed to give marine researchers and educators access to the ocean while leaving a minimal footprint on the environment.

In the world of marine research vessels, this sailboat is like a hybrid car—tapping both the power of the wind and that of an auxiliary diesel engine. Fitted with an innovative double-masted, cat-ketch rig, the boat consumes a fraction of the fuel used by research vessels driven by engines alone: “It`s like powering an 18-wheeler using a motorcycle engine,” said Wylie.

The Derek M. Baylis—which is operated by the nonprofit Sealife Conservation and also works with the Monterey Bay Aquarium “Science Under Sail” program—takes researchers, school kids, tourists, and all those with an interest in the oceans aboard for a first-hand look at how man`s actions can have a positive, or devastating, effect on the health of the ocean. The boat is coming to Strictly Sail Pacific to extend its environmental education to showgoers who step aboard.

Strictly Sail Pacific runs April 18-22 at Oakland`s Jack London Square. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.strictlysail.com.

The team had another good day in a challenging dying northerly breeze in St. Pete. We sailed four of the scheduled five matches before the breeze died completely. We continued our undefeated streak and ended the regatta with a perfect scorecard. We continued to work on our teamwork and communication and feel good about our preparation for the coming events.

Thanks again to Ethan and Trudy Bixby for housing our team and to Andy and Boots for taking care of little Nicole while Suzy was out sailing.

The Report from SPYC:

“The racing continued today, Sunday, starting shortly after 0900. The wind had abated considerably and was from the north east and far steadier than on the previous two days. Four of the remaining five flights were completed before the wind stopped blowing completely. The competitors were towed back to the dock for lunch and the awards ceremony. Liz Baylis, with team members Karina Shelton, Lee Icyda and Suzy Leech, continued to be unbeatable, winning every match. As a result she, and second place finisher Rachael Silverstein, will receive invitations to the Rolex Osprey Cup, an ISAF Grade 1 event to be held at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club October 18-22 2007.“

Final results (ties resolved) Points

Liz Baylis, San Rafael, CA 9

Rachel Silverstein, St. Petersburg, FL 7

Sandy Hayes, Scituate, MA 6

Rossana Ramos, Brasilia, Brazil 5.5

JoAnn Fisher , Annapolis, MD 4.5

Arabella Denvir, Irvington, VA 3.5

Maegan Ruhlman , Charleston, SC 3

Louise Bienvenu , New Orleans, LA 3

Verian Aguilar, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands 2

Karen Park , St. Petersburg, FL 1.5

Thank you again for all of your support and encouragement.

The next report will be coming to you in a couple of weeks when we head to Calpe, Spain for the Grade 1 Women’s Match Race Criterium.

Cheers,

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

Liz, Lee, Karina, and Suzy